Zion Williamson, 8 years after the Draft: “I’m not where i should be”
Eight NBA seasons, countless injuries and still zero playoff games: Zion looks back on his career and doesn’t shy away from the expectations he has failed to meet
When Zion Williamson entered the NBA in 2019, the idea was that New Orleans had found the player to build its future around after Anthony Davis. Eight seasons later, however, his career has taken a very different path from the one envisioned on Draft night and, on the eve of another potential breakthrough season, Zion himself acknowledged it without sugarcoating it.
I am not where I want to be… I am just not where I need to be and I’m not where I want to be
Zion Williamson
Few words, but pretty weighty considering everything that has happened over the past few years. The talent we saw at Duke and during his best moments with the Pelicans has never really been in question: the problem has been being able to show it consistently.
Injuries, especially to his lower body, have followed him throughout virtually his entire time in New Orleans. Williamson has played more than 60 games just three times and, now 26 years old, still has yet to play the first playoff game of his career.
A difficult situation to imagine when he entered the league as the No. 1 overall pick and one of the most highly anticipated prospects of recent years.
For Zion, it may be his last chance
There is still time to change the story, especially because when he is healthy, Zion remains an incredibly difficult player to contain. His explosiveness, physical strength and ability to get to the rim have allowed him to maintain an elite level even during seasons that have been anything but easy.
Now, however, showing it only in flashes is no longer enough. Williamson enters the new season with two years remaining on his contract, while his name has resurfaced several times in trade rumors over the past few months. New Orleans, meanwhile, has continued to change things around him without ever really figuring out just how far a project built around Zion at its center can go.